Al-Nabaa Forum for Dialogue held a lecture addressing the impact of political sectarianism in Iraq on the state’s trajectory, attended by academic and political figures alongside broad media representation.
The lecture, delivered by writer and journalist Ahmed Al-Sheikh Majid, addressed the history of political conflicts characterized by political and sectarian divisions throughout Iraq's political history, its interplay with the regional and international surroundings, and the growing discourse surrounding the concept of sectarianism and its place within the modern state that adopts democracy, calls for promoting human rights and fundamental freedoms, and permits political pluralism, particularly in nations characterized by significant political and denominational diversity.
Al-Sheikh stated that "the goal of organizing a lecture addressing the issue of political sectarianism is to define sectarianism, identify its most critical problems, trace its historical roots, and ascertain its role in dismantling religious and cultural pluralism, as well as elevating religious conflicts over a culture of accepting others and coexisting with them."
Al-Sheikh added that "the role of civil society organizations, which I specifically emphasize, demands a serious attempt to raise awareness regarding the major decline in the concept of the state due to political sectarianism," noting that "among the deepest problems in our Arab reality is political sectarianism and its manifestations in the social and religious spheres... for it dissolves the identity of citizenship, replacing it with sub-identities prone to conflict and intense infighting. It serves as a path to dismantling the state as an institutional and service-providing entity, among other things, and this is precisely what we seek to confront."
Meanwhile, the Head of the Al-Nabaa Forum for Dialogue, journalist and writer Ali Al-Talqani, pointed out that "what the Iraqi political reality faces today necessitates considering the importance of tackling the issue of sectarianism on the political and religious levels, concurrently with what the countries of the Islamic world in general and Arab countries in particular are witnessing in terms of an increasing threat of sectarian fanaticism, especially between the Sunni and Shia poles, and the Arab and Kurdish poles, and the evolution of this fanaticism into armed conflicts in several Arab countries, alongside the growing indications of the danger it poses in Iraq in particular."
Al-Talqani added that "the organization of this lecture by the Al-Nabaa Forum for Dialogue under this title comes at an important juncture, coinciding with the victories achieved in reclaiming the city of Mosul, which marks a significant transition in the country's domestic policy on the security and political levels. Since 2003 and the fall of the dictatorial regime in Iraq, along with the accompanying attempts by certain political forces to exploit democracy and its mechanisms to achieve narrow interests at the expense of the nation's and homeland's interests, recent years have produced factors that reinforced the concept of extremism and terrorism."
It is worth noting that the lecture session noticed active participation from the audience through interventions, extensive discussions, and propositions emphasizing the necessity of elevating the Iraqi political reality and escaping the manufactured crisis of political sectarianism, which has exhausted Iraqi society across its diverse political, religious, and ethnic spectrums and denominations.
It is worth mentioning that the Al-Nabaa Forum for Dialogue is a community that seeks to stimulate discussion aimed at generating ideas to support and advise governmental institutions and civil society organizations through a series of activities conducted by the forum.